Once Again, The Joke Is On Us
Lobbying Reform Act. What does the word reform mean?
Dictionary definition:
- 1. To improve by alteration, correction of error, or removal of defects; put into a better form or condition.
2. To abolish abuse or malpractice in: reform the government.
3. To put an end to (a wrong).
4. To cause (a person) to give up harmful or immoral practices; persuade to adopt a better way of life.
It is time for the citizens of America to take over the guarding of our hen house. The wolves are inside and they are becoming fat on their malfeasance. And we are the chickens that they are feasting on. The latest passage of what they call a reform of lobbying practices is the point that proves that they can’t do what is right or ethical, that the person committing the crime can not possibly be the person who prosecutes the criminal. If you are not part of the solution, then you are part of the problem.
Democrats and Republicans are falling over each other to introduce “lobbying reform” bills, requiring lobbyists to disclose contacts with legislators, banning trips, meals, prostitutes, hospitality suites and all the other bribes. By the end of next week, we will have between two and four lobbying reform packages. None of them will do what most Americans want. Which is to take the pay we give them and do the work we expect from them. Without any other compensation. They already make more money than most American workers.
They also should be banned from going from a corporation to public servant to corporation so quickly. They are able to pass laws which will benefit whatever company they worked for or plan on working for after they leave office. As I previously wrote, I thought that we had a lobbyist group. Wasn’t that what a our Constitution called for when it made a Representative Government. Who are they suppose to represent? The citizens or the corporations?
This is not a lobbying scandal. It’s a betrayal-of-public-trust scandal. Lobbyists have no power, no influence, until a public servant gives them power. That’s what DeLay and the K Street Project was all about. What they did was to set up a system by which lobbyists who proved their loyalty in various ways, such as taking DeLay and Ney on golf trips to Scotland, could be transformed from supplicants to full partners in government.
Abramoff did lots of terrible things and should go to jail, but never forget that every single criminal and unethical act of his was made possible by a public official. On his own, Abramoff had no power. At another time — say, 1993 — he would have been a joke.
But every time we say “lobbying reform,” we reinforce the idea that it is only the lobbyist who is the wrongdoer. Sure, many lobbyists are slimy and aggressive. (Others, in my experience, can be helpful and informative, as long as you understand that they represent only one side of an argument.) But no one forces any legislator or staffer to accept lunches, trips, or favors from a lobbyist. And the reason not to do that is that the legislator risks surrendering some of her power, which is a public trust, to these private interests.{Source}
Tell your Senators and Congressmen that they are already bought and paid for. We bought them when our Founding Fathers fought for our independence and wrote the Constitution, with our soldiers blood, with our trust and with the money they accept from the American Taxpayers. You can not have two masters. You are either for us or against us.
